Adobe mentions how to make a 'silent install' on the support page...dont know if you want to go to the trouble.
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331297.html

Run a silent installation of Adobe Creative Suite 2.0


What's covered

Create an installer XML file

Run a silent installation



When you purchase a volume license for Adobe Creative Suite 2.0, Adobe provides an option that allows you to run a silent installation (that is, an installation with preselected options and no interface) on Windows or Mac OS X. In a silent installation, a custom installer runs the installers for each product in the suite by using command-line installation tools built into the operating system. To run a silent installation, you must create an XML file (or script) for the custom installer.

Any chance of an updated similar version of Adobe Illustrator CS2.msi?

Great find jroc.

However, there are some factors to consider.

1. This for Creative Suite. I'm not sure if the msi if the Photoshop CS2 supports xml files.
2. This is for the VL version (volume license).

A little bit off topic, but: which programs do (did) u use for editing MSIs?

Can you show us how you did it? I'd like to do the same with the illustrator cs2 msi file.

orca

InstallShield!

If only i had illustrator!

i was using some dodgy freeware msi editor (but it did the trick)

@mrmb

pls write some sort of guide. And then pm one of the moderators
to put your guide on the first post of this topic. So that people dont
have to go through 3 pages.

provide the files u hv them.

thanks!

A guide would be GREAT if you can make one!

indeed it would

All you need to do is remove the custom action in the execute sequence.

Remove this:
CA_ActivationCheckLicense

You can try deleting this also: (not sure if this is necessary)
CA_ActivationCheckProductActivationStatus

Here is my MST file. I removed the CA_ActivationCheckLicense custom action.

This should work on the RETAIL version. Not sure if it will work on the trial because I think they use different MSI's.



EDIT: The only difference between the trial and the retail msi is the UNITYSECTION. Therefore, this should work with the trial as well.

I made this for those who don't have fast internet connection. 5kb is way much easier to download compared to 5mb.

EDIT2: File attached again.

I edited the MSI file directly to remove CA_ActivationCheckLicense from the CustomAction section of the MSI as per totoymola's suggestion above. I used Orca to do this.

About to test now. Stay tuned for the feedback...

Please post your results.

See below for result. That's the most descriptive error message ever.

Any ideas?

that's weird.. try /qr

what did you do? how did you edit the msi?

I edited the MSI by using Orca. All I did was remove that one line called CA_ActivationCheckLicense from the CustomAction section as you suggested we do, and resaved the file.

Interestingly enough, I get the same result with mrmb's posted MSI. It could be a problem with my setup though. I'm testing in Virtual PC 2004 (w/o SP1). It's NOT a clean install. I've had Photoshop CS installed previously and recently uninstalled it to see if I can get Photoshop CS2 to install silently. Stay tuned for more meaningful results.

Also, when I open up mrmb's MSI, I noticed that he did NOT remove CA_ActivationCheckLicense, which makes me more curious as to what changes he made, if in fact his MSI works on others' systems.

Sorry but I can't really help you on that because I don't use Orca.

He removed that for sure, because that is the custom action that triggers the activation window. Well, there are other possible ways to disable that. Maybe he didn't remove the action, but he changed the condition so it will not be called. Or maybe he didn't remove it from the table, but he removed it in the execute sequence.

I have zero experience with editing MSI's, so got no clue what he did. I've been messing with Orca a total of about 2 hours. As an added note, I tried using /qr when installing, and I got further than before. At least the install started this time. Instead though, I end up with it asking me if I want to open the readme file, and then upon trying to launch Photoshop, it says the serial number provided isn't valid (or something to that effect), which is probably normal since I never provided one in the Abcpy.ini file. No sign of any activation wizard yet either.